High Jewelry Drops From 3 Elite Jewelers

Let’s do another eye candy blog. IMHO high jewelry is beautiful to behold and also the safer category to browse compared to beautiful yet impractical material things at T.J. Maxx -- which ordinary wage earners could afford but shouldn’t buy mindlessly. So lets began our peruse of the more costly finer things in life, shall we?

The above Ocean Flora Necklace features diamonds and un-oiled, un-enhanced Zambian emeralds, celebrated for their bright green color. Five perfectly matched emeralds total 10 carats. It is part of Tiffany & Co’s Blue Book 2025 collection called Sea of Wonder. Created by Nathalie Verdeille, the design is a tribute to the ocean's lush seascape and inspired by the gentle sway of underwater botanicals. 

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Round and pear cut, light and dark sapphires finished with 174 sparkling diamonds

From Harry Winston's Majestic Escapes Collection inspired by wondrous travel locations, the diamond and Sri Lankan royal blue sapphire pieces are named the St. Moritz Necklace and Earrings. The collection, designed by Harry Winston’s artisans, captures the fluidity of the magical snow caped Swiss Alps and brilliant blue sky. If you keep in mind the sapphires are stand-ins representing the mountains, the diamonds are like glittering snowflakes showering the blue gemstones.

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Oscar Heyman crafted this platinum multi-colored and multi-shaped Gemstone and Damond Necklace and Bracelet.

The necklace features a vibrant mix of hues from amethyst, aquamarine, beryl, chrysoberyl, citrine, demantoid, green sapphire, mandarin garnet, periot, pink sapphire, blue sapphire, tourmaline, ruby, tsavorite and yellow sapphire. A complementary bracelet (one of several styles) has 12 carats of (390 round) diamonds and colored sapphires. You might as well select a royal blue sapphire ring to have a suite! 

With its reputation of master craftsmanship, Oscar Heyman was commissioned by other elite jewelers, namely Van Cleef & Arpels, Tiffany & Co. and Harry Winston to design several of their most iconic pieces of jewelry.

Which high jewelry set would you most like to borrow to wear to a gala?

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Pretty And Practical Drop Earrings

The stones are diamonds and multicolored sapphires (green, blue, pink and orange)

Eight years ago during two of Macy's rock-bottom jewelry sales, I bought 2 pairs of drop earrings. Both purchases were splurges, not steals because although the sale prices knocked 2/3rds off the full retail prices, it still cost a chunk of change to buy each pair. 

I noticed that Macy's keeps this drop earring style in its inventory by offering it in different gemstones. Right now the stones available are diamond and multicolored sapphires (top image👆) as well as diamonds and opals.

I wear earrings every day of the year, so I've gotten plenty of wear out of mine. Not too big or too small with good ear coverage and sparkle, they are the perfect everyday earrings. The marquise cut of the gemstones with small round accent diamonds is lovely.

The earrings are 14k yellow gold, 1-carat total weight of selected gemstone with 1/4 carat diamonds. The drop design of the earrings gives the illusion of a greater carat weight. I bought the earrings first in blue sapphires and liked them so much I got the same style in rubies. [Once upon a time they were also offered in emeralds and diamonds, but I stopped at 2 pairs.]

If looking for earrings you can wear every day to work or play, look no further than this ear ribbon style. Without a doubt, I think fine jewelry in 14k gold is too expensive today for the pieces we get, plus the pushbacks that hold the earrings on our ears are extremely slight, but once you bite the bullet and shell out the cash, you'll get a ton of wear out this classic and versatile style.

If in search of a wearable splurge, put these drop earrings on your wish list and wait for the best of Macy's sales for the lowest price. Wait, wait, wait it out to pay $330 - $400 at the most. Nowadays with the high price of gold, they'll rarely get any cheaper, but hey, you might get lucky if they become a Macy's Last Act item!

What's your favorite splurge ... the thing that puts a spring in your step?

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Million Dollar Rubies Sold

Imagine owning massive top-quality rubies! Let's take a look at 2 stones sometimes called the king of gems that were sold in 2023. 

First up is The Sunrise Ruby, a rare Cartier Burmese ruby, set with 2 side diamonds in a platinum ring. Last year it was sold at auction by Christie's from the estate of Austrian billionaire Heidi Horten for $13,055,000, less than predicted due to a bit of controversy that is unrelated to the gemstone's origin. In 2015 Ms. Horten paid $30,300,000 for the ruby. According to Christie's, the price was higher in 2015 due to the back and forth of 2 bidders at the time.

Below👇are different angles of the cushion shape, brilliant cut Sunrise Ruby. It weighs 25.59 carats.

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Mozambique, a country in Southeastern Africa, is emerging as a rich source of premium-quality rubies. Our 2nd gemstone is a Mozambique ruby that fetched $34,800,000 at Sotheby's last year, setting a new record for the price of a ruby. 

Called the Estrela de Fura (Porchugese for Star of Fura) Ruby, at 101 carats uncut, it's both the largest gem-quality ruby ever found, as well as, the highest price ever paid at auction! Cut down to 55.22 carats by gem dealer and cutter Francois Garaude into a cushion shape, this stunning ruby bears remarkable symmetry and balance. It is gigantic, unheated, and clean making it a rare natural ruby. The ruby's pigeon blood color is equal to the celebrated Burmese rubies. Under ultraviolet light, the Estrela de Fura ruby radiates a strong fluorescence. 

In addition to oohing and ahhing, all I can say is a regular person's rubies are very small and flat in comparison!😊

BTW, The Sunrise and Estrela de Fura rubies were acquired by anonymous private collectors. The new owner of Ms. Horten's ruby lives in the Middle East. I always hope these huge ideal gemstones eventually end up in a museum so the public too can see them.

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And now here are jewels for average people like you and me. 😛 

Below👇are smaller, less-perfect rubies from Macy's or Saks. Perhaps not heirloom nuggets, yet they are pretty too, no? Each piece is 1-9/10 carats, a versatile size that can be worn both daily and to galas ... and the cost is more attainable. Remember my motto: First a dreamer, then a realist!

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Zircon Is A Favorite of Gem Dealers And Collectors

Another radiate gemstone, a favorite of jewelers and collectors yet usually overlooked by the general public, is a zirconium silicate (ZrSiO4), which is its chemical name. Known in the jewelry trade as zircon, the mineral rates a 7.5 on Moh's Scale of Hardness, making it durable to wear as jewelry. Don't confuse zircon with cubic zirconia, a cheap lab created diamond substitute, only their names are similar.

Natural zircon is one of the earth's oldest gemstones (at 4 billion years old) and rivals diamonds in sparkle.

In fact, zircon has a higher refractive index (a/k/a brilliance; or sparkle) than sapphires, rubies, emeralds, spinels or tanzanites (and tanzanite is priced as a gemstone for its high refractive index). It turns out, zircon has more fire than most colorless and colored gemstones. Brilliance is the colorless (or white) light emitted from a gemstone, while fire is the colored light, or sparkle you see when the stone is exposed to light. Zircon has both brilliance and fire in abundance, glittering nearly as much as a diamond. It's a semi-precious, affordable stone.

Natural zircon comes in an array of beautiful colors: Blue is the most popular and green is the rarest. Historically, blue zircon comes from Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Burma. White zircon, with its excellent brilliance and fire characteristics, makes a very fine budget-friendly diamond-substitute for anyone who desires a natural, as opposed to, a lab created gemstone. Jewelers call "yellow" honey zircon. Tanzania has become a main source for mining red, orange and honey zircon. As in the case of other gemstones, heat treatment is allowed in the jewelry world to enhance zircon's colors and the process doesn't lessen its value. Heat is an accepted treatment because it doesn't weaken, nor change the composition of the natural crystal, and heat is the same element that over billions of years caused the formation of precious and semi-precious stones.

Photo: JTV

Unlike either diamonds or manmade cubic zirconia, zircon is birefringent -- making it unique -- it has two different refractive indices [indexes] whereby a ray of light is spilt by polarization into two rays of light, each taking slightly different paths.

So now that you know more about zircon, do you want one? If so, what color appeals to you?

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